Theo had suggested we get started that day. But Wednesday afternoons Lucy had a piano lesson right after school, and by the time she was done, I had to head to Dad’s. To be perfectly honest, I was a bit relieved that the science project had to wait. I was thinking about that shrug Monroe had given me in science class. It’s not that I minded working with Lucy and Theo, but it made me feel like I was caught in the middle of two sides—Lucy and Theo on one side, and Monroe and the It Girls on the other.
So being at Dad’s seemed like a good break. At least until I got there. I’d hoped we could have a makeup Father/Daughter Pizza Night, and maybe I’d talk to Dad about everything at school. But Dad had already made other plans, and those plans involved ordering in gluten-free Chinese food with Gloria and Sage.
Talk about being stuck in the middle—Mom on one side, and Gloria and Sage (and Dad) on the other.
The Tofskys arrived, and I didn’t have time to sit in my seat or even leave my cup at my place setting to claim it before Sage had plopped herself down, right next to Dad. “Hey, Jim,” she said. “Guess what. I’m going to be in my school play!”
“Good for you,” Dad told her. “Chloe was in Annie at her school last year. She sang a couple lines in ‘It’s the Hard-Knock Life.’ What part were you again, bear?”
“Orphan number four,” I said. I’d tried out for Molly, one of the orphans who actually had a name, but Bianca DeLuca had gotten that role. Dad said it was okay, though. He said there were no small parts, just small actors.
“That’s right,” he said now. “What play are you doing, Sage?”
“Alice in Wonderland,” she told him. “I’m going to be Alice.”
“How spectacular!” he exclaimed. “Chloe, isn’t that spectacular?”
I swallowed a bite of sweet-and-sour chicken. “Sure,” I said.
“The audition was this morning,” Sage said. “I did a monologue about when Alice chases the White Rabbit and falls down the hole.”
“I’d love to see you perform it after dinner,” Dad said.
Which of course meant that I had to see it, too. I have to admit, Sage was pretty good. She only had to glance at the script once, and the show wasn’t even happening for a month.
But then Dad stood and gave her a standing ovation, and I knew he didn’t really mean it when he said there were no small parts, because he thought it was an awfully big deal that Sage had the title role. I couldn’t wait to get back to Mom’s house.
I had an It Girls meeting on Thursday, so it wasn’t until Friday that Lucy, Theo, and I got together to talk about our project for Mr. Dibble’s class. We decided to go to Theo’s house, because he practically had a library full of science books in his bedroom. He told us to observe things on our walk, to see if any discoveries popped out at us.
“I’m seeing cars and trees and houses,” Lucy said. “And look—Vanessa Medina dropped a gum wrapper and it fell to the ground!”
I picked the wrapper up and threw it in the trash can on the corner. “Newton already discovered gravity,” Theo told Lucy. “We need a question we don’t know the answer to yet.”
“O-kay. Have you ever thought about wearing colors besides white and tan?”
“The answer to that is it’s not relevant,” Theo said. “And besides, I don’t think you’re in the position to mock someone’s clothes.” At that moment, Lucy herself was wearing a cloak of about a thousand colors, which she’d told me was from when her brother had starred in his high school production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
“I’m not mocking them at all,” Lucy said. “Honestly. I was just curious.”
“Well, I like my clothes,” Theo said. “And we need to concentrate on real questions. Mr. Dibble just gave us a big opportunity. You guys need to take this seriously.”
“I am taking it seriously,” I told him.
“Me too,” Lucy said.
“Good, because can you imagine how good it would look on our college applications if we actually did discover something new?” Theo asked.
“We have”—Lucy paused to count—“Seven years before we apply to college.”
“It’s never too early to start thinking about it,” Theo said. “Plus, if we make a new discovery, we can probably skip a few years and go straight to Harvard. Or at least skip into sixth grade. Now I have some thoughts on chaos theory.”
“What’s chaos theory?” I asked.
“The study of nonlinear dynamics,” Theo told me.
“What?”
“Any-hoo,” Lucy cut in. “That’s where I live. Right over there.” She pointed out a gray clapboard house. “I’d invite you in to meet my grandma, but she’s volunteering today. You guys should hold your breath.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because we’re about to pass Mrs. Gallagher’s house,” Lucy said.
She’d stopped in her tracks. Her voice had dropped a couple decibels lower, and she nodded toward the house next door to her own. It was also gray; but unlike Lucy’s house, you could tell it hadn’t been painted that color. Instead, it was a very, very dirty white house. Two of the window shutters were hanging crooked, and the windows themselves were caked with dirt. The front yard was littered with sticks and leaves that looked like they’d been there for a few seasons.
“When I was little,” Lucy said, “I used to think she was a witch, and I made up all sorts of rules. Like if I held my breath when I passed by, then I’d be immune to her spells.”
“There are about a thousand problems with your logic,” Theo said, stepping forward. “First of all, there’s no such thing as witches. And second, even if there was, when you breathe you’re inhaling molecules of everyone who ever lived. It’s a scientific phenomenon called Caesar’s last breath. So holding yours in front of her house won’t do any good. You’re getting her molecules anyway.”
Just then, one of the dirt-caked windows was thrown open. “I see you kids on my lawn!” a crackly voice cried out. “You’re a nuisance to the neighborhood! Your parents should know better than to let you wander alone. Get out of here before I—”
Lucy shrieked and the three of us took off down the block, not stopping until we’d turned the corner. We were panting and took a few seconds to catch our breaths.
“What’d you ever do to her?” Theo asked.
“Nothing, I swear,” Lucy said. “Maybe we just discovered that witches really do exist!”
“A scientific impossibility,” Theo told her.
“I’d still feel safer if she wasn’t my next-door neighbor.”
I patted Lucy’s shoulder, feeling sad for her. “Hey, you know what I just discovered through my power of observation?” I asked.
“What?”
“The ice-cream truck,” I said, pointing all the way down the block.
I still had the five dollars Mom had given me on Monday in my backpack, and I treated each of us to a vanilla cone. I held my ice cream in one hand, and with the other I dropped a penny from my change on the ground.
“You dropped your money,” Theo told me, bending to pick it up.
“No, no, leave it,” I said. “I did it on purpose.”
“That way someone else can walk by and get lucky pennies,” I explained, and I dropped another.
“That’s so cool!” Lucy said.
“Lucky pennies are a scientific impossibility,” Theo said.
“Hey!” a voice squealed from behind. The three of us turned to see a little boy. He looked about four years old. “Look! Mom! I’m finding treasure!”
“One man’s scientific impossibility, another man’s treasure,” I whispered to Theo.